FIRST STOP BOSTON & THE CANTAB LOUNGE!

actually, my first stop was newYorkcity where i'll be based for the three weeks i'm in the northeast. a friend who lives here once told me that in new york, there is a little man who walks around collecting a "leaving the house" tax each you time you walk outside. it's that expensive. and so much to buy! imani uzuri, who has graciously opened her home to me to act as my NE base, warned me on my way to catch the trainstation to bowery and canal. christa, baby, she said, you're gonna have to stay focused as you walk down canal. don't get distacted by all the glitter. you only have 1/2 hour to get to the bus! and thank earth she warned me! i had to walked down canal like i had blinders on. it just wasn't fair...all the screaming bright fake balenciaga's calling my name like, christa! over here! just a quick peek!!!, and then the sparkly bohemian cloth bags from pakistan, india and morocco...the booths with trays filled with silver and brass trinkets, the hot pink paisley wraps and more fake designer bags...and all the booth patrons shouting, for you!? only $30...make it $25, but this is my lowest price!]

i know it sounds like i did a little more than just peek but i swear i made it to my bus on time!

before i left, my boy soulchilde, aka okanamede, told me about a super cheap bus that'll take you from chinatown new york to chinatown boston for $15 (i didn't learn that chicken cages--with chickens in them!-- frequently rode this bus until after i arrived in boston). the name of the bus is the Fung Wah bus line and it runs every hour all day long.

i slept the entire way to boston, hopped on the subway to mass ave and arrived at the cantab around 7pm.

i normally don't eat before i perform but was starving, so i ran next door to a college-town sort of indian place called the ghandi restaurant and had a thin but lovely cup of lentil soup (spiked with ginger!), a round of kalcha (a leavened flat breat with butter) and, my favorite, an amar lassi, which is like a smoothie made with sweet yogurt and fresh mango juice over ice, served in a glass that is usually too small!

then i was back at the cantab where i sat through about two hours of the best open mic i've ever been to. normally at open mic's, by the end of 15 minutes i astrally project myself into another, happier situation as far from the stage as possible (like, maybe lithuania or some place), but the cantab poets were niiiiiice! funny, smart, well spoken and intresting. i was only bored very occasionally!

my feature started at about 10:30...i wrecked it, sold lots of merch, had a great conversation with a senegalese man, who is bound to be a good friend, about islam and the tradition of patriarchal/colonial religions in africa, and was out!!

i'm staying with a wonderful woman named simone beaubien who is the very engaging slammaster at the cantab! we stayed up til the break of dawn eating pasta, goldfish crackers and apple jacks, talking about saturn return (she's in hers), men who want to get married, and how to reinterpret the scary traits of the parent we're most afraid of to serve who we are and wish to become today.

we're off now to harvard square, i think, to look for a calendar for me, and then it's on to providence for tonights feature....more later...cbell